by Rick Riordan

This series follows the adventures of young Percy Jackson, a misfit and a troublemaker even among other "troubled" kids. Some would go so far as to call Percy a juvenile delinquent. Others prefer to think of him as a demigod. I have trouble distinguishing between the two.
Crazy things happen in Percy's life. After he's kicked out of school for the sixth or seventh time, he starts to realize why. He can see things others can't. Scary things. And the monsters aren't there by coincidence. 
After a terrible encounter in which Percy's mother is lost, he is brought to a camp for kids like him, where he learns the truth of his bloodline. He's a half-blood, the son of a mortal and a powerful ancient Greek god. At camp Percy learns to fight, read Greek, and avoid being turned into a dolphin. When Percy is accused of stealing an artifact of immense power, he is sent on a quest with two friends to recover the artifact, reconcile the gods, and save Olympus. 
But a powerful new enemy is rising, and Percy finds himself entangled in a mysterious prophecy that holds the fate of the world in the balance.

Now, before we go on, I'd like to clear up a few misconceptions.

And Percy and Annabeth should be 12.

Not 18. or 20. or however old they were in that movie.

Talk about butchering a storyline.
Percy Jackson does not deserve butchering. Well, maybe he does, some of the time, but his books don't. Well-written, epicly written, as befits a Greek hero. Pretty much the funniest narration ever. *sniff* I do admire good sarcasm. Percy Jackson is a fun twist on ancient mythology. Rick Riordan really did his homework. The characters are funny and each has a unique story. Way entertaining.

for: older kids on up
Content rating: 4/5 There's the whole gods-and-mortals-having-kids thing. And some monsters get skewered.
My enjoyment: 5/5

Recently, I've had the vicariously exciting experience of having a friend of mine visit the Catching Fire filming set and meet the actors as well as the author of Hunger Games. My friend faithfully passed on my message to Suzanne Collins that Gregor the Overlander is still closest to my heart (particularly Ares). I didn't want the Underland Chronicles to be neglected, you see. That said, I feel it would be unjust to neglect mention of Collins's equally amazing, and much more popular, Hunger Games series.
The Hunger Games is pretty awesome. No doubt you know all about it because of the Harry-Potter-and-Twilight-like status it's achieved. I'll run through a quick summary here:

Katniss Everdeen lives in poverty-stricken District 12 with her family, who barely scrape by on what Katniss can shoot and forage in her illegal excursions to the woods. Katniss's world is turned upside down when her little sister, Prim, is chosen as a tribute during the annual Reaping held in each district by the tyrannical Capitol of Panem. Desperately, Katniss volunteers to take her sister's place and becomes a contestant in the 74th Hunger Games: a televised, forced fight to the death between youth from the various districts. Of 24 tributes, only one will leave the arena alive and be showered with wealth and glory. The districts, crushed in the rebellion against the Capitol 74 years before, have long been resigned to this state of affairs. But in the second and third books, the flames of hatred between districts and capitol are fanned, and Katniss Everdeen emerges as the face of a new rebellion.

This series is great, the characters are imaginative and well-developed, the intrigue is intriguing, the plot and love triangle original and captivating. It is extremely violent though. Graphic in parts. I'm just impressed and delighted they kept the movie PG-13. 
Fun to read, and grimly told in Katniss's sarcastic tones. 
Make sure you have Dr. Seuss or something happy to read when you're done.

Genre: futuristic/sci-fi/fantasy/romance
for: teens and adults
Content rating: 2.5/5 For violence, hatred and depression, some nudity (not sexual), and some mentions of forced sexual relationships.
My enjoyment: 5/5

by Suzanne Collins

I have a confession to make. I...I don't feel like I could live with myself if I wasn't completely honest with my loyal inkbound fans about this. It's just...I don't really...don't really know how to...I don't want you to be disappointed in me...
yeah. I guess I'll just say it.

Um, I like Gregor the Overlander...better than the Hunger Games.


I know. That's it. You can all hate me now.

Or you can let me enlighten you. And if you do, while you too may be alternately shunned and attacked by angry, pitchfork-wielding, cosplaying Katniss fans--you will partake of a joy which they can never know.
Gregor the Overlander. A humble little book series, never achieved the Harry-Potter-and-Twilight-level popular-obsession status that the Hunger Games now enjoys. A mere 229 fanart hits on Deviantart, as opposed to the Hunger Games' 75,438. More of a children's than a teen's series, really.

I don't care. It's even better.


Written prior to the Hunger Games and directed at a younger, apparently less bloodthirsty audience, Gregor the Overlander tells of an eleven-year-old boy who falls through a grate in a routine trip to the laundry room and ends up in a place altogether different from New York City. In the Underland, which is peopled by strange humans and hosts of giant rats, bats, cockroaches, and the like, laundry is the least of Gregor and his toddler sister Boots' worries. After a near-disastrous attempt to return to the surface, Gregor learns that to some of the Underlanders, his appearance wasn't entirely unexpected. Directed by a bizarre prophecy, Gregor and the haughty queen Luxa assemble a fantastic alliance of creatures to carry out a search for something Gregor feared lost forever; a quest that may save the Underland from destruction.

In the course of five books and many adventures, Gregor and his family find their destiny inseparably entwined with that of the Underland as Gregor leads the war that will decide the fate of them all.

I think we all ought to pause here and acknowledge that Suzanne Collins has a flair for the epic. The dramatic. Those bits so perfectly timed, so unexpected, so thrilling in their execution that make us want to jump up and shout. "Yes! YES! You wrote that EXACTLY RIGHT! Haha! In your face!"
Now, most of us don't succumb to these urges, (though I won't deny an occasional fist pump or two) but we've all felt them. Collins is the master of writing these moments. She is also the master of complex, unexpected plotlines, new elements, double crosses. And she neglected none of these in writing Gregor the Overlander.
Plus, she didn't make the protagonist a bitter, depressed, mentally disturbed killer. (At least, not usually). 
Don't get me wrong, I love Katniss, her neverending poor attitude, and her jolly District 12 friends. But Gregor seems more real to me. With all the doubts and worries and insights of an eleven-year-old thrown way out of his depth. And Boots. And Luxa and Ares. All so well developed. 
Yes, I'm sorry loyal blog buddies, there will be no disenchanted ranting about this series. But I will leave you with one final smart-alecky remark:
  I was a Collins fan before it was cool.


For: older kids on up
Content rating: 4.5/5 There is much war and violence. Not graphic. 
My enjoyment: Gosh I love this series. 5/5

by Neil Gaiman

I do like this book. Neil Gaiman calls it "refreshingly creepy" and "a story that children experienced as an adventure, but which gave adults nightmares." I don't know about the nightmares, but it's certainly creepy and I wouldn't let small children read it...
Coraline is about a girl named Coraline who lives with her loving but disinterested parents in a large house divided into several flats. The neighbors are either fairly odd or certifiably insane, depending on your point of view. 
Coraline is an explorer. But one day, she comes across the dilemma that all explorers encounter: it's raining and she's not allowed out. After Coraline counts all the windows in the flat, visits the crazy neighbors, lists everything blue, and is STILL about to die of boredom, she remembers the door in the drawing room that is said to lead nowhere...
(But come on, I mean, we've all read Narnia.)
Behind the door is a world where everything is better, or at least more interesting. And behind the door is another mother who wants to keep Coraline forever.

One of the things I like most about this book is Coraline herself. She's just a great character. As for the rest, it's certainly imaginative. An adventure. I think it's meant to be a sort of horror fairy tale.
Don't ask me if the movie is better. I haven't seen it. 

       But hey, nice movie poster!
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For: older kids 
Content rating: 4/5 This is sort of hard to say. It isn't that there's bad stuff so much as it...it just isn't entirely benign. The evil is a little too accurate for a childrens' story. Of course, that's my take and I rarely read spooky stories.
My enjoyment: 3.5/5

by Cornelia Funke

So I think that we need to talk about these books separately. Because they occupy separate places in my heart.
Yes, tragically, this is one of those book series that starts off beautifully and after the first book just kind of drags on and on like so many pages of tax returns. Even in Inkheart, the story tends to go around in circles a bit.
If you do plan to read the whole series, however, just read my review of the first book since I can't promise that there are no spoilers in the next two.

Inkheart is the first book of the, uhh, the Inkheart series. The main character, Meggie, lives alone with her father Mo, a bookbinder. The bibliophilic little family of two gets along quite well together, but one dark and stormy night they receive a surprise visitor with ominous news. The messenger, an old acquaintance of Mo's named Dustfinger, brings troubling news of danger that sends Meggie and her father down the road in a rush to stay with Meggie's great-aunt Eleanor. Eleanor is an imposing woman who prefers to be left alone with her books. Even there, however, peril finds them in the form of another old acquaintance named Capricorn, who kidnaps Mo for a strange power that Meggie never dreamed her father possessed...and that may hold the answer to the disappearance of her mother.

Most of Inkspell is set, funnily enough, inside a book...I mean inside a book inside a book. (If you want to know how that happens, you'll just have to read Inkheart won't you?) So the characters of the book, plus a few transplanted from our world, are all running around with their own agendas here and it's pretty much pandemonium. Here's one story that's been adapted from it's humble origins. It's up to Meggie and the author Fenoglio to rewrite their tale and save the fantasy world from a variety of villains that Fenoglio probably regrets ever writing--a task that may require some outside help, including an ominous new role for Meggie's father.

Inkdeath begins and ends in confusion, which is probably why it has the distinction of being one of the only books I've ever read that I don't remember that well. It wasn't too bad, however, I was annoyed that Meggie's role is minimal as the story goes on. All responsibility for saving the world is basically transferred to Mo, in his new role as the world's one remaining hero: the Bluejay. Things he has to save his friends and the world from: 
-an annoying substitute author, who dethroned the old one
-a dictator named the Adderhead and his buddy Piper
                                                        -Death, who is slightly ticked off

As I said, I loved the first book. After that it gets too complicated and leaves you with the feeling of falling with agonizing slowness down the rabbit hole like Alice and not knowing where you're going to end up. Very likely I would enjoy the rest of the series more during a second reading though, now that I kind of know what's going on.  
In any case, I love the beautiful writing, the interesting and imaginative characters, and the whole idea of a story within a story. 

for: older children and teens
Content rating: Geez. It's been a while. I think there were just a few swear words and stuff. Definitely nothing real bad. I'd say 4/5
My enjoyment: Inkheart: 4.5/5
                      Inkspell: 3/5
                      Inkdeath: 2/5

by Brandon Mull

Okay. I've been informed recently that my book reviews are too boring. Not opinionated enough, the fan(s) say! Bring on the controversy, the fan(s) say! There's nothing more fun than a good argument over a book!
Well, since the fan(s) are clamoring for controversy, I'll do my very best. Some of you, I'm sure, are wondering about the choice of Fablehaven to debut my new, fighting spirit. Please don't get me wrong. Fablehaven is quite an excellent book series. I chose it for this purpose because A) I didn't feel like reviewing Twilight, B) there are a few things that have always bothered me about Fablehaven, and C) someone once dared to suggest to me that it was better than Harry Potter!
I will not allow anyone to besmirch the name of Harry Potter. But if you have a challenge, bring it forward. I would be absolutely ecstatic to find more fantasies that I could enjoy as much.
Again, Fablehaven is a great series, and before I do anything else I will tell you why. It's a children's fantasy series, with some original characters and ideas, and quite well written in a friendly style. It's just dang fun to read. As the series begins, two siblings named Kendra and Seth are delivered to grandparents that they have never met to spend the summer with. Though unenthusiastic at first, Kendra and Seth find their grandparents amiable and their home, a protected preserve whimsically called Fablehaven, as interesting, one might even say as enchanting, a place as two kids could wish to spend a summer. They soon discover, however, that not all is as it seems. The borders of the preserve are sealed not only to protect its inhabitants from the world, but to protect the world from the creatures living inside...
After a magical battle with a demon, etc, etc, Kendra and Seth learn that there are many more such preserves hidden around the world, some with hidden magical objects whose power may soon be needed to stop the unleashing of the greatest threat the world has ever seen. But there are enemies, even amongst the most devoted caretakers of the magical world...
Yes, overall an excellent storyline. A few small things that do bug me: 1) Kendra is too perfect and somewhat wimpy. The adventurous Seth takes a lot of the risks and most of the blame. 2) As the series progresses, the kids gain more and more superpowers. At some point you have to ask, okay, how could you not win??

for: children and teens
Content rating: 5/5 Absolutely clean
My enjoyment: 4.5/5  Very entertaining. A good addition to all the little adventures going on in my head.

by Gail Carson Levine

This is my favorite of Levine's books. It is nothing like the movie--far better than the movie, in fact.
Ella Enchanted is about a girl born in the magical kingdom of Kyrria who is--surprise!--enchanted at birth with a curse of obedience. The giver is the misfit fairy Lucinda, who sees absolutely nothing wrong with turning someone into a squirrel now and then. Ella grows up under the careful protection of her mother and Mandy, the cook. Then one day her mother dies of illness and Ella is left to the tender loving care of her dishonest merchant father. Still struggling under her curse, (and unable to refuse any direct order, however thoughtlessly given), Ella makes the acquaintance of the poetically named Prince Charmont, who becomes her dear friend and pen pal, and the horrible Dame Olga, Hattie, and Olive, who become her stepmother and stepsisters, respectively. Ella endures years in their company, strengthens her friendship with the prince, and ultimately forges the strength of character that she will need to break her curse and live happily ever after.
The writing is excellent and the character development well done. I love this book because Ella is such an intelligent and imaginative character. It's fun to read, and so original that you will forget it's based off a fairy tale.

for: kids, teens, adults...anyone with extraordinarily good taste in fantasy...
Content rating: 5/5 very clean
My enjoyment: 5/5 for the reasons above mentioned

by J.K.Rowling

Yes. Just look at them. Beautiful, aren't they?
Now, I know that just about everyone in the world who intends to read Harry Potter already has, and that the rest of the world resents the hype. Nevertheless, I will take a moment here to congratulate J.K.Rowling. Sometimes things are popular for a reason.
This is my favorite book series in the world. That makes me terribly unique, I know. Harry Potter is original, creative, and provides an entire elaborate world to get into. But I like it best of all for the writing style. Rowling's writing is humorous and captures the teenage mindset very well, as I ought to know. 

On the off chance you don't know the storyline: orphaned Harry Potter, raised by his uncharitable and unmagical aunt and uncle, learns on his eleventh birthday that he is a wizard. And not just any wizard: he somehow defeated the greatest Dark wizard of all time, Lord Voldemort, at the tender age of one, after his parents were murdered by Voldemort. Harry heads off to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he meets his best friends Ron and Hermione and the school's respected headmaster Albus Dumbledore. But even Dumbledore's protection may not be enough when Lord Voldemort, barely alive, makes repeated attempts to return, wreak revenge on Harry, and conquer the Wizarding world. 

For: teens and adults
Genre: Fantasy
Content rating: 4/5 Some violence, a few swear words, and dark magic. If the latter bothers you a lot...don't read the books. Naturally, the series gets darker in later books as Harry gets older and Voldemort gains power.
My enjoyment rating: 5/5